


Humble Beginnings

by yenside



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AU, Gen, Medical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-08 20:20:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yenside/pseuds/yenside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Project Nobody, Number Thirteen. Notable abilities unknown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Humble Beginnings

They call him “Number Thirteen”.

He knows this because when they make those sounds, they look at him, and their eyebrows draw together if he doesn't understand or do what they want.

He knows it because one of the others told him that it was his name.

He doesn’t know all the sounds they make, but he knows enough to follow orders.

 —-

The walls are very bright here, always clean. The floors are the same, and the tables. He wishes, instinctually, that he had more blankets. The air here makes his skin prickle, but blankets make the sensation softer.

He has always been here, though.

He has never had enough blankets.

He sleeps in a clean room and the people come in and make noises, and mostly he does not understand. He learns to pick out some of the noises, the ones they talk about a lot – “Project Nobody” and “experiment” and “replica”.

Sometimes they talk about other Numbers.

He knows the noises but he doesn’t always know what they mean.

 ——

> Project: Nobody
> 
> #13
> 
> Codename - Roxas
> 
> Gene donor(s): [CLASSIFIED]
> 
> Status: Stable
> 
> Notable abilities: Unknown
> 
> Subject 13 was created in the Fourth Facility. The Subject is responsive to orders, although shows no sign of higher reasoning or emotional capabilities. It has not yet demonstrated abilities similar to the previous experiments, but testing continues. The subject is considered a cautionary success. 

 —-

Thirteen does not like the man whose name is Ansem. Thirteen isn’t sure when he decided this, but he knows that the Ansem does not like him. Ansem calls him “it” and is always there when the others slide the spikes under his skin.

Some of the others smile at him, or make quiet noises and try to be careful, but Ansem does not. Ansem often looks at something on his wrist, or at the thin slices of white wall he carries in his hands. He does not look at Thirteen’s eyes.

—-

He follows one of the others into a room that has nothing in it but walls and floor and the above. They leave him.

He sits on the floor and closes his eyes and breathes in and out.

They do this sometimes. Normally they leave him in the other room, with the bed. But sometimes they put him in this one, and then they leave and he cannot see them.

The first time he sat by the door.

Now he sits where he feels like it. He likes the corners mostly, where he can see the whole room, though sometimes he still sits by the door.

They’ll come back. Sometimes he falls asleep, and sometimes they wait until his middle is aching and his lips are dry.

Something builds inside him, this time.

The door is the same colour as the walls, as the cloth he wears, as the cloth the others wear.

He stands and walks to it. The floor is cold under his feet.

He rests his forehead against the door, and something within him clicks together.

He can feel the door, and he can feel what is inside the door – a mechanism of gears and pulleys. He places his fingertips against the door and reaches through them – he can feel something within the door shift.

And it slowly opens.

There is a pain in his neck.

Then, nothing.


End file.
